The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden

Hi guys! Today, I wanna share with you a book so emotional and probably something new to read for you.it’s also inspirational as well and it just came out the other day (September 24, 2013). Check out the synopsis below. 🙂

Title: The Wedding Gift

Author: Marlen Suyapa Bodden

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Published by: September 24, 2013

Drawing inspiration from her work as a human rights lawyer as well as the desire to give a voice to her ancestors kidnapped from Africa from the 16th to the 19thcenturies, Marlen Suyapa Bodden wrote a powerful tale of bondage and ultimate freedom in THE WEDDING GIFT based on a true court case in Alabama in the 1800’s.

We first meet Sarah as a child just beginning to understand her captivity at the young age of six. Sarah is the daughter of Cornelius Allen, the slave master, and his house slave, Emmeline. When Master Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, he presents her with a wedding gift: Sarah, the young slave she grew up with who also happens to be her sister. When Clarissa’s new husband suspects that their newborn son is illegitimate, Clarissa and Sarah are sent back to her parents in shame, setting in motion a series of events that will destroy this once powerful family.

Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, THE WEDDING GIFT is a stunning novel that demonstrates the bonds of slavery do not end with slaves. It is historical fiction at its best and no one is better equipped to share this story than Marlen Suyapa Bodden whose knowledge of modern and historical slavery, human trafficking, and human rights abuses translates to an intimate portrait of America, then and now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Marlen Suyapa Bodden is a lawyer at The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the nation’s

oldest and largest legal services organization. She has more than two decades’ experience representing poor people and low-wage and immigrant workers, many of whom are severely underpaid, if paid at all.

She drew on her knowledge of modern and historical slavery, human trafficking, and human rights abuses to write The Wedding Gift, her first novel.

On May 20, 2012, the University of Rhode Island conferred on Marlen an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Marlen is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Tufts University.